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Welcome to the World of Comics!
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Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is one of the two big heavy-hitters of the comic book medium. Starting out back in 1939 as Timely Publications, they began belting out tales of super-hero lore with heroes who would one day become icons in their own right, beginning with the Sub-Mariner, the original Human Torch, and of course, that patrioatic paragon of virtue - Captain America. The company evolved into Atlas Comics during the 1950s, but wasn't until 1961 that the Merry Marvel Universe was born with the introduction of four exciting individuals who were given powers via cosmic radiation and became the Fantastic Four. Oh yeah... there was also this kid who was bitten by a radioactive spider. You may have heard of him. His name is Peter Parker, but the world knows him best as the amazing friendly-neighborhood Spider-Man! In short order, the Marvel Universe found itself populated by strange an inexplicable beings such as the X-Men, the Hulk, the Avengers and Daredevil.
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DC Comics
DC Comics is the premiere juggernaut of the comic book industry. It started out in 1934 under the name National Periodical Publications, publishing the traditional westerns, mysteries and funny books, but it was June, 1938 that changed the medium forever when two guys named Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster made you believe a man could fly when they first breathed life into a strange visitor from another planet that the world would come to know as Superman. Hot on the success of Superman's debut in Action Comics #1, National Periodical carved out another enduring legend when Bruce Wayne first donned the mantle of the Dark Knight Detective, Batman, over in Detective Comics. This paved the way for a bevy of exciting new costumed crime-fighters such as Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the Flash, to say nothing of the super-team the Justice Society of America, and the Golden Age of Heroes was born.
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Creator spotlight
Stan "The Man" Lee is the Godfather of Marvel Comics. He was born Stanley Martin Lieber in New York City, New York on December 28th, 1922. Lee started out as an assistant at Timely Publications in the late 1930s, but made his fabulous foray into the world of comic writing in early 1941 when he drafted the storyline for "Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge" in the third vignette in Captain America Comics #3.
By the early 1960s, after having already spent two decades in the industry, Lee was planning a career change. If not for the advice of publisher Martin Goodman, who urged him to come up with some superhero ideas to compete with DC Comics, comic book history might not have turned out quite the way we remember it. Inspired to create characters with multiple dimensions, Lee partnered up with legendary artist Jack Kirby and put together a quartet of costumed heroes that would live on in kiddie book infamy - the Fantastic Four. It would not even be year before most popular comic concept would spring... or rather, swing, to life - the Amazing Spider-Man, who debuted in the pages of Amazing Fantasy #15 in August, 1962.
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Title spotlight
Action Comics was the second longest running comic book series of all time, with only Detective Comics having been published longer. As of June 2011, it had surpassed the 900 issue mark. Aside from its venerable publication history, Action Comics is more famously known as the literary birth place of Superman, arguably the most well-known super-hero in the world. Superman made his first appearance in June of 1938 in the title sequence story from Action Comics #1.
For the first several years of publication, Action comics existed as an anthology series, featuring multiple twelve-page stories featuring a variety of characters ranging from Congo Bill to Zatara.
By the 1950s, the popularity of Superman had reached such a zenith, that the title became informally regarded as a "Superman" title.
By the 1970s, Action Comics featured Superman exclusively with occasional eight-page back-up stories spotlighting various characters such as the Atom or Aquaman. For a year in 1969 and 1970 the back-up story were home to the Legion of Super-Heroes.
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Did you know...?
- Doctor Occult is the first DC Comics character, predating the introduction of Superman by 2 years!
- The original Superman couldn't even fly! He could only grasshopper-leap 1/8th of a mile!
- Although Bob Kane is classically credited as the creator of Batman, it was actually Bill Finger who wrote most of the stories, and came up with his rogue's gallery of villains.
- Howard the Duck is the first theatrically released live-action feature film based on a Marvel Comics character.
- The original origin concept for Wolverine posed the notion that he was actually raised in the woods by rabid wolverines! Whew! Glad they changed their mind on THAT ONE!
- Golden-Age Green Lantern Alan Scott was re-imagined as a homosexual for the "New 52" continuity of DC Comics.
- Not only did Lou Ferrigno play the Hulk in the original Incredible Hulk television series, he also voiced him in several animated projects in the years following.
- Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee has made a cameo appearance in every film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, as well as the Spider-Man film series by Sony Pictures and Fantastic Four by 20th Century Fox.
- Image Comics was founded by seven disgruntled Marvel Comics freelance artists: Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri, Rob Liefeld, Whilce Portacio, Jim Lee, Erik Larsen and Jim Valentino.
- At the height of their popularity in the 1990s, Valiant Comics' hottest titles were actually retooled properties from 1960s publisher Gold Key Comics.
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Character spotlight
She-Hulk is a fictional superhero featured in comic books published by Marvel Comics. She was created by writer Stan Lee and artist John Buscema and first appeared in the premiere issue of her own on-going comic series, The Savage She-Hulk.
The She-Hulk is in reality Jennifer Walters, a successful defense attorney from Los Angeles. After being gunned down by members of a crime cartel however, Jennifer's cousin, Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk, is forced to give her a blood transfusion. Banner's gamma-radiated blood causes Jennifer to transform into the 6'7" green-skinned power house, the She-Hulk. Unlike Banner however, Jennifer maintains her intelligence, though her personality takes on a more adventurous and aggressive turn.
Although Jennifer was at first fairly savage in instinct and behavior, she was never a rip-roaring angry as her more infamous green-skinned cousin. While in her She-Hulk form, she eventually gained the same intellectual capacity she had in her normal human form. She quickly came to appreciate the confidence and assertiveness that had come with being the She-Hulk. For a long time, she felt more comfortable in her She-Hulk form than in her human form, but she has gradually grown comfortable with either physicality, and realized that she had much to offer the world in both her forms.
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Publishers
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Imprints/Studios
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